The History of the Kings of Britain: An edition and translation of the De gestis Britonum [Historia Regum Britanniae] (Arthurian Studies) (Volume 69)

Text and translation of key Arthurian text - a major source for scholars.Written in the 1130s, Geoffrey's imaginative history of the Britons from Brutus to Cadwallader, the first work to recount the woes of Lear and the glittering career of Arthur, rapidly became a bestseller in the British Isles and Francophone Europe, with over 200 manuscripts surviving. Yet no critical edition of the main version has appeared since 1929. This new text, for which 14 manuscripts have been collated in full, rests on a survey of the entire tradition; it is accompanied by a facing English translation, prepared especially for this volume. A comprehensive introduction discusses the status of variant versions, the shape of the main tradition, and many questions of editorial principle; critical notes analyse some problems raised by the transmitted text; and there is a full index of names. MICHAEL REEVE is Kennedy Professor of Latin Emeritus at the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge; Dr NEIL WRIGHT is a Senior Language Teaching Officer at the Faculty of History, University of Cambridge. CONTENTS......Page 6 Geoffrey, Merlin, and De gestis Britonum......Page 8 The transmission of De gestis Britonum......Page 12 §§ 6-108......Page 13 §§ 118-208......Page 20 §§ 109-10......Page 30 Survey of the tradition......Page 32 Spelling......Page 52 Geoffrey’s Latin......Page 56 The quality of the transmitted text......Page 57 Geoffrey’s sources......Page 58 Articulation......Page 60 Punctuation......Page 62 Editions......Page 63 Critical notes......Page 65 Translator’s note......Page 76 SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS......Page 78 Text and Translation ......Page 79 INDEX OF NAMES......Page 359 Written in the 1130s, Geoffrey's imaginative history of the Britons from Brutus to Cadwallader, and the first to recount the woes of Lear and the glittering career of Arthur, rapidly became a bestseller. An ideal text for scholars, this is a reprint of the Latin text with a facing English translation